That probably won’t do it for me then. But I’ll keep an eye out for your future opinions on the fusion stuff. Might still be a good game inbetween more complex ones!

After you’ve played more MH Stories, what do you think about the battle system? I bounced hard off the demo, but I’m curious if I should give it another try. I remember it being just rock paper scissors.

More 13 Sentinels. I’ve done alle the story I could do without progressing the battles (~75%). By now, I have a good grasp on the story, I think, but I’m sure there a many more twists waiting in those last 25%.

At about ~45% completion for the battles and compendium. Doing the story first I had so much resources, I could may out my score boost for those sweet mystery points.

Not much more to write about the game. I recommend it, but it’s impossible to talk about it without spoiling stuff.

God Eater 3 was also more of the same. The story increasingly takes a back seat, which I prefer while doing the multiplayer. At the begining, you had to search and talk to several NPCs after each mission to progress - now it’s only one after every 2-3 missions.

I don’t think that’s true anymore. Going all digital, even on Nintendo’s eShop, most third party games are dirty cheap during sales which happen quite frequently. Most games I’ve looked at go on sale every other month. Of course, they are still stingy as fuck with their first party stuff.

Some more 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim.

I only focused on the story this week, but didn’t have much time anyway. Went from ~21% to ~44% completion.

With each new character I follow, the story just seems to get better. I’m excited to get the full picture eventually - but I also feel like I’ll need to play a good old linear RPG afterwards.

As for the weekend, I played a lot of God Eater 3. About halfway through the story, I think.

On paper, the gameplay has a few problems. Almost all enemies seem to have some badly telegraphed AOE attacks or chain some quick dashes across the area together. Getting hit is mostly unavoidable. At the same time, the game is quite easy. Missions rarely take longer than 5 minutes - some monsters yielding after just a minute. But despite this, the Monster Hunter formula is just inherently fun and there a many ways to customize your character. So even if you don’t care for the story, there’s always a motivation to jump into the next mission right away.

Unlike Monster Hunter, crafting is rather easy, and you can get most weapons/shields without replaying any missions. But you still can and will be rewarded for grinding, because some of your moves will gain EXP by using them. There are about 10-20 skills per weapon, and you can equip 3 at the same time.

I remember putting so much time into the GameCube version as a kid, but I don’t think I ever finished the game even once.

For the most part, I just enjoyed doing the police chases and dragging them out as long as possible. Think multiple hour long ones. Destroying police cars and creating as much property damage as humanly possible. Sadly, on the higher levels these became quickly frustrating as the police started deploying instant K.O. spike traps. Losing your run an hour in to one of these was the worst feeling.

The actual racing was fun, too, although I never liked drag races. Their control scheme was just awful. And I probably wasn’t any good at racing, given that I don’t remember ever finishing the game.

Still, I have a lot of nostalgia for the game and the soundtrack shaped my tastes in music to this day. I haven’t enjoyed another racing game since then, I should probably go back and finish it.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, above all else.

That being said, Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor 1 and 2 are awesome. They combine SRPGs with the usual SMT combat - I don’t think I’ve found something similar yet.

You move around like you would in any other SRPG, then you can attack enemies in range to enter normal turn based combat - however, at most, you can only play out 2 full turns before combat ends. Afterwards the next unit moves. Each unit represents a squad of up to three characters you will be batteling with, usually a human and two demons. Depending on your squad, you may have different movement, range and abilities.